1596 W. Warner Albions Eng. (rev. ed.) x. lx. 265 For Salomon, diuinely wise, could Subtellizings sound.

1643 J. Milton Doctr. Divorce 44 Wee never leave subtilizing and casuisting till wee have straitn'd and par'd that liberal path.

1676 A. Marvell Mr. Smirke sig. D2^v By which sort of subtilizing the Church hath in former Ages much suffered.

1701 J. Norris Ess. Ideal World I. i. 11 A subtilising upon a fine nothing.

a1754 J. Maclaurin Serm. & Ess. (1755) 331 These things shew the tendency of incautious subtilizing on the differences between the will and the affections.

1837 W. Whewell Hist. Inductive Sci. I. 65 The love of subtilizing and commenting.

1870 Dublin Rev. July 63 We may dispense with all subtilizing about conventional ‘susceptio’ as opposed to internal judgment.

1875 Congregationalist May 318/1 There are so many unripe speculations, vague subtilisings, and groundless assertions, that we fear his praiseworthy aim in publishing it will not be attained.

1904 W. E. Purser Palmerin of Eng. 376 There is too much subtilizing here.

1988 E. Behler in C. G. Thomas Paths from Anc. Greece vii. 135 Shakespeare had been presented..as always acting as a poet securely, naturally, and without any reasoning, reflecting, and subtilizing.

2008 C. E. Miller Critiques' Rev. 447 The subtilizing upon a Gloucester revealed to the audience at the beginning.

1618 T. Bretnor tr. A. Sala Opiologia x. 74 The preparation of humors before purgation doth chiefly consist in two operations, that is in subtilizing and attenuating of those which are Viscouse thick and clammy, and incrassating and thickning indifferently those which are too subtill.

1662 C. Merrett tr. A. Neri Art of Glass xvi Crocus Martis is nothing else but a subtilising and Calcination of Iron.

1684 tr. S. Blankaart Physical Dict. 125 Sublimatio..is a Subtilizing of things by gradually Dissolving them, and Exalting them into a purer..degree of their own qualities.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Elements The third Element..may become the second; and the second, by a continual Comminution and Subtilizing, the first.

1826 J. Bell Princ. Surg. (new ed.) II. 408 No philosophy, and far less this of Palfin's, about the subtilizing of the blood, can account for the ill effects of such a hole.

1863 Atlantic Monthly July 130/1 In them there is no subtilizing of human affections, of human fears, or of human faith.

1898 Proc. Amer. Pharmaceut. Assoc. 398 In all preparations of gold much stress was laid on the spiritualizing or subtilizing of the metal.

1944 A. Crowley Bk. of Thoth 193 The remaining three cards of the suit belong to Sagittarius, which represents the subtilizing of the Fiery energy.

2000 R. Grossinger Embryogenesis (rev. ed.) 828 There is no environmental gap between enormous stellar objects and life forms except the subtilizing, layering, deepening, and interpolation of the latter.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Subtiliant, extenuating, subtilizing.

1675 N. Grew Compar. Anat. Trunks ii. iv. 60 That so the attenuating and subtilizing Air, may have a more easy..admission at the Trunk.

1725 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Œconomique at Broom Goose-Grass, It's somewhat abstersive and desiccative, and its Parts are a little subtilizing.

1859 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. July 28/2 In genuine biographies I had read of the subtilizing or exalting influence of some diseases on the mental powers.

1999 D. W. Hauck Emerald Tablet xvii. 287 During this subtilizing Distillation or purifying phase, your physical body is the Ferment, the spiritized womb from which your Second Body will emerge.

1683 W. Kennett tr. Erasmus Witt against Wisdom To Rdr. sig. a3 With the subtilizing Crysippus [he] should sooner want Opinions to set abroach, than upon the taking up any opinion want arguments to defend it.

1751 Gentleman's Mag. Apr. 156/1 Nothing more than the chimerical offspring of a fanciful and subtilizing brain.

1784 New & Gen. Biogr. Dict. (new ed.) VIII. 54 Knox..began to disrelish this subtilizing method,..and applied himself to plain and solid divinity.

1839 T. De Quincey Lake Reminiscences in Tait's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 9/2 Raising a cross-fire of artillery from the subtilizing intellect.

1881 A. P. Stanley in Macmillan's Mag. 43 208/1 The liberty sought for was not to be attained by open and legal methods, but by crooked and subtilizing explanations.

1946 F. Sheed Theol. & Sanity 41 To say that a being is infinite..means the absence of all limitations, not only external but internal as well. At first sight, this may seem needlessly subtilizing.

1989 W. Berthoff Hart Crane iv. 83 Our newest academic criticism, grown aggressively skeptical and subtilizing in addressing literary texts, appears correspondingly uncertain in its dealings with the entirety of literary works.